The Yomiuri Shimbun is reporting a significant data theft case affecting as many as 5.06 million people who used online shopping and other web sites in Japan.
The Metropolitan Police Department said that the IDs and passwords were found on computer servers it seized in relation to alleged unauthorized access via proxy servers by a Chinese group.
The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned that two of the firms are major online shopping mall operator Rakuten, Inc. and LINE Corp., which operates a free call and messaging app.
According to the MPD, the IDs and passwords were stored on the computer servers of Sun Techno, a proxy server operator in Toshima Ward, Tokyo. The police raided the company’s office in November.
About 7.85 million IDs and passwords registered as membership details on Japanese sites were stored separately in 150 files.
If it is assumed that there are no users in common between the sites, the information for about 5.06 million individual users can be considered to have been affected. Some of the data includes names, birthdays and credit card numbers. Who stole the information remains unknown.
The police also report that it appears that the personal information of about 60,000 people was misused to log into online shopping sites.
Read more on The Japan Times.